Flu epidemic rages in Japan with record-high cases in one week reported

A flu epidemic is raging in Japan with the number of patients in one week estimated to have reached a record-high of 2.83 million, the health ministry said Friday.The average number of patients per medical institution reported in a week through last Sunday stood at 51.93, the highest since comparable data became available in 1999, it said. The figure for the same week last year was 28.66.The illness has hit children and young people particularly hard, causing the temporary closure of 108 schools and 5,737 classes across Japan.The data is based on reports by some 5,000 clinics throughout the…READ FULL ARTICLE